Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

ers of whites from prestigious Northern families would force the Justice Depart-
ment and the FBI to play an assertive role in protecting voter registration person-
nel .'
On the other hand, the majority of the SNCC Mississippi field staff,
particularly those recruited from Mississippi communities, opposed the inclusion
of massive numbers ofwhites in projects in Black Mississippi communities .
Mississippi field organizers, including Hollis Watkins, MacArthur Cotton, Willie
Peacock, and Sam Block believed the involvement of massive amounts of white
college students would interrupt the process of developing indigenous leadership
and organization in Mississippi communities of African descent. They believed it
was necessary to continue to organize new forces, particularly young people and
to unite with the indigenous networks which already existed in local communities,
like the local NAACP chapters, the informal intelligence systems, and defense
,groups. In many Mississippi communities COFO had not yet initiated any orga-
nizing. To have Northern whites be the fast contact these communities would
have with the Movement, some argued, might not encourage Black community
initiative . Some argued the Mississippi Blacks with little formal education might
be intimidated by Northern whites with a college education. SNCC activist
Charles Cobb (a Howard University student from Massachusetts) feared that due
to their experiences, contacts, and administrative skills, privileged white students
would "take over the local COFO projects from indigenous Mississippi Blacks.'
On November 14, 1963, in aCOFO staff meeting in Greenville, Missis-
sippi, Moses presented the idea of a Mississippi Summer Project . The Mississippi
Summer Project would include a massive statewide voter registration of disen-